Letter attachment for printing presses



L ETTER ATTACHMENT FOR PRINTING PRESSES Filed Aug. 13, 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 1 HIM June 25, 1929. KIRKBRIDE v 1,718,363

LETTER ATTACHMENT FOR PRINTING" PRESSES Filed Aug. 13, 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 in section.

Patented June 25-, 1929.

V UNI ED STATES 1,718,368 PA ENT OFFICE.

EDMUND minimum, 01' AMD NEW RSE A tSIGNOB or ONEHALI' TO s. c.

LOVELAND, or HAMMONTON, NEW JERSEY.

LETTER ATTACHMENT FOR ERE SSES,

Application filed August 13, 192 7. eria1 No, 212,6 7}.

My invention relates to mechanism for supporting and feeding inked ribbons across the type of printing presses for printing imitation typewritten letters.

The chief purpose of my invention is to. provide mechanism for attachment to ordinary printing presses for use as above in printing imitation typewritten letters and at once adapted to the requirements of service and to easy and inexpensive manufacture.

'A further purpose is to feed an inked ribbon laterally across the platen and on spools placed at each side of the platen.

A further purpose is to mounton the pivoted gripper carrier (bars) special supporting structure and mechanism for the spools out of the way of the usual paper-feeding mechanism of the machine, adapted to automatic operation by the machine, to ribbon feeding by a single ratchet, and easy interchange of the spools for reversal of the feed.

Further purposes will appear in the specification and in the claims.

I have selected for illustration only one of the various forms of my invention, but have selected a form that particularly well illustrates the principles involved and which moreover is very quickly put on or taken off of the usual printing press and which is very convenient and efficient in operation.

Figure 1 is a side elevationof a usual type of printing press equipped with my invention.

Figure 2 is an enlarged detail View upon the line 2-2 of Figure 1 and in part shown Figure 3 is a section of Figure 2 taken upon the line 33.

Figure 4 is an enlarged detail section upon line 44 of Figure 2.

Figure 5 is an enlarged sectional detail from Figure 2.

Figure 6 is a section upon the line 66 of Figure 5.

Figure 7 is a section of a modified detail.

In all figures like numerals refer to like parts.

Describing in illustration and not in limitation and referring to the drawings The printing press is shown somewhat diagrammatically. The frame 10 supports a driving shaft 11 which carries pinion 12. The pinion engages gear 13 mounted upon shaft 14. The usual bed 15, pivoted at 16, is oscillated by linkt17 from crank pin 18 from one face of the gear 13. The platen 19 is operatlvely connected with a roller 20 fitting nto and following a cam groove 21 within the mner face of the larger gear, The grip ers 22 are mounted upon thegripper carrier ars 23 which are pivotally supported at 24 lugs 25 and 26 from the lower side of the platen. T er i l h a dow war ly p. 70 Jectmgarm 27 carrying at its lower end wheel 28 rest ng upon the cam bar 29, a spring 30 m mtaining contact between the wheel 'and bar. The grippers and gripper bars are operated and angularly positioned with respect to the platen by the wheel and cam. I

1ciikll of the mechanism thus far described is o In the attempt to produce imitation typewritten letters upon the printing press var ous forms of ribbon roll support have been proposed. of these involving the location of the rolls within the furniture of the make-up prOVQd impractical because the size of roll which it was possible to hold within the limited space allowed was insufficient for effective work. of the others proposed, so far as I ani aware, have been rendered, inoper t ve by. he gen adopt of el mefie paper feeding mechanism with which they interfere.

a result np to the present time except for my invention, no effective form of ribbon holding roll supports is available which is suitable for use by the printer for imitation typewritten letters and which is provided with automatic feed. My invention is therefore designed to supply the re nirements of s uch a structure'to g v namely a y. app tion and mo al, ample su of ribbon, freedom from interference o gripper adjustment, and simplicity ofconstrnct on, connection and operation in a form which does not interfere with auto mat c paper feeding devices such as the Miller paper feeder. I

These requirements have been met in the machine shown, which comprises main brackets 31 nd 32 that fit andrigidly fasten to the carrier, lateral portions 33 and 34 extending to each side of the'platen, spool hoiisings 3 5 and 36 thereon at each side of the platem removahle cooperating spools 37 and 38 supporting and feeding betweenfthern ribn 9 nd. ra chet drive 40 pe ed y h platen.

The main brackets are held in place by the ings. and the placement of the housings are perbolts and 42 through the slot 43 of the bars and downward projections 4L4: and 45 fitting into the bar grooves 46. The lateral portions are suitably recessed at 47 and 4:8 to accommodate projections of the machine.

of the way of a greasy gear of the printing machine, not shown in the drawing and this housing presents one side 51 horizontally be tween the gear and spool to better shield the spool from any grease from the gear. On the right side the spool is usually better shielded when one flat is horizontally above the spool and I h ave so shown it in the draw- In practice theheight of the spools missibly varied to obtain best shielding of the spools; in any event however the upper surfacesof the housings are in proper line for guiding the ribbon. The bearings for the spools are carriedin the transverse portions 52 and 53.

The spools comprise interchangeable tubular spindles 54 and 55 each having at the lower end a fork 56 interlocking with a pin 57 or 58 and at the upper end fitting about the lower end of the pin bearing 59- rigidly carried by the housing. A sleeve 60 inwardly flanged at 61 is resiliently pressed to stopengagement with the rearward shoulder 62 on thepin 59 by the spring 63, thus resiliently limiting the outward position of the spool. The fork 56 may be released from interlocking by sliding the spool outwardly against the action of the spring 63 after which the spool may be slid out forwardly. This adapts the spools to very easy interchange.

The pin 57 is carried by a drag or ribbontousion member 64 which is preferably a split spring sleeve between and pressing against the-outer sleeve 65 and the pin 66. The pin (36 is rigidly carriedby thehousing. Rotation of the spool. is resisted by the drag memb er to any desired predetermined extent to produce proper'tension in the ribbon.

The pin58 is carried by the spindle 67 of theratchet member 40 and drives the spool to wind up the ribbon when the ratchet is operated.

In the ratchet mechanism the ratchet wheel 68 is fastened to the spindle 67 and the operating sleeve member 69 is pivotally mounted on the same spindle- The ratchet is locked from reverse turning with respect to the housing by thespring pressed pawl 70 carried by the housing and locked from reverse turning with respect to the operating sleeve member by the spring pressed pawl 71 carried by the operating sleeve. The operating member 69 is resiliently pressed toward its position for operation by the spring 72 located between the sleeve member and the housing, and presents the projecting arm 7 3 to meet the platen at every impression. As the ratchet drive is a common form of ratchet drive I have not considered it necessary to describe itto greater length' r I preferably provide a handle 74; at the end of the spindle for use when putting on a new ribbon. Ordinarily this handle Will not be used at other times and if desired it may be made removable.

In the form illustrated, reversal of the ribbon is secured by'interchange of the spools. This is such an extremely easy operation and by reason of the ample size of the ribbon rolls so infrequently necessary as. to make usually unnecessary the few additional parts for reversal. Without interchange of spools.

Permissibly however these few additional parts are supplied, each sidehaving mechanism for ratchet drive and mechanism for maintenance of ribbon tension. This combined tension and driving mechanism may conveniently be arranged, as shown in Figure 7 The split-sleeve tension member 64 is compressed between the spindle 67 and the sleeve member 69 and at its forward end carries the ratchet wheel.- At its rear end it is locked to or released from the spindle 67 according to the longitudinal position of the slotted sleeve 75. This sleeve has a slot and pin connection with thespindle at 76 and a forwardly projecting lug 77 to lock with the split 7 8 of the tension sleeve. The sleeve is resiliently pressed toward locking position by the spring 7 9 and the recess 80 at the forward end of the slot adapts thesleeve to latch in position of release. Placing the ratchet drive on bothsides is thus optional irrespective of the way the housings may beplaced to shield the spools. V

During operation the sleeves are on the two sides respectively in locked and released positions, causing the winding mechanism to operate on the locked side and the tension mechanism on the released side. The direction of feed is reversed by. reversing the relative positions of the sleeves 75,,1noving the locked sleeve into release positionand the released sleeve into locked position.

During printing the type is kept inked automatically by the inking rollers 81 which, before each impression, roll over the type and away for re-inking at the inkingplate 89.. My ribbon is inked initially and is automatically maintained in properly inked condition by its impress against the inked type, with each impression receiving a small quantity of ink from the inked type on one side and delivering a corresponding small quantil tity of ink to the paper on the other side. The ink is thus delivered to the ribbon exactly where needed and nowhere else andv delivered in right amount to maintain the ribbon properly inked. As a result good impressions are obtained until the ribbon wears out. The impressions are uniform to the ends of the lines and throughout the height of the sheets. This is a very great advantage over the usual multigraphing where the number of impressions is limited by the quantity of ink in the ribbon and the impressions in a relatively short time are no longer uniform by reason of the ink being used up less rapidly at the ends of lines, paragraph spaces and spacesat the beginnings of letters.

In view of my invention and disclosure variations and modifications will likely become evident to others skilled in the art to meet individual whim or particular need, and I claim all such modifications and variations in so far as they fall within the reasonable spirit and scope of my invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. In a printing press, a platen, a pair of cooperating spools, an inked ribbon carried by the spools, and housings for the spools located on opposite sides of and outside of the platen, pivotally supported by the platen, telescopic bearings for the spools upon the housings, and resilient means holding the bearings to place.

2. In a printing press, a platen, a pair of cooperating interchangeable spools located one to each side of the platen, an inked ribbon carried by the spools, housings for the spools pivotally supported by the platen, bearings for the spools carried by the housings and telescoping with the spools, and resilient means holding the bearings to place, comprising members stop-limiting the outward position of the spools and axial therewith and spring-pressed against outward shoulders of the bearings.

3. In a printing press, a platen, a pair of cooperating interchangeable spools located one to each side of the platen, housings therefor pivotally supported by the platen, an inked ribbon carried by the spools, bearings for the spools carried by the housings and telescoping with the spools, and resilient means holding the bearings to place comprising a sliding and inwardly flanged sleeve on the outer bearing and a spring surrounding the bearing between the sleeve and the housing pressing the sleeve to stop engagement with the support.

4. In a printing press a platen, a pair of cooperating spools, located one to each side of the platen, an inked ribbon on the spools,

housings therefor, a mounting for the housings pivotally carried by the platen, a ratchet member axial with respect to one spool and adapted to be operated by the press, a drag member axial of the other spool, operated thereby, and in drag connection with the housing portions of one spool and of the ratchet member longitudinally and radially interlocking to form removable clutch connection therebetween, and portions of the other spool and of the drag member, longitudinally and radially interlocking to form removable clutch connection therebetween.

5. In a printing press, a platen, a gripper bar pivotally mounted thereon, a pair of brackets mounted upon the ends of the gripper bar to fit one on each side beyond the platen, a spool mount in each bracket, a ribbon carried by the spool mount, guides on the bracket positioning the ribbon and a protecting cover face upon one of the brackets adapted to protect the ribbon spool and keep it clean.

6. In a ribbon attachment for printing presses, a pair of brackets each having a lateral extension adapted to engage the gripper bar of the press to place the brackets beyond the gripper bar, a pair of spools having spindles, a spool mount for each bracket to receive the spool spindle at opposite ends of the bracket, a driving mechanism for one of the spool mounts, and a spring engagement between the spool spindle and the driving mechanism adapted to be latched in disengaged position.

7. In a printing press, a platen, two spools, one located at each side beyond the platen, housings for the spools enclosing two sides thereof, and the other two sides and facing diagonally with respect to each other in opposite directions, removable supportsfor the spools, one in each housing, a ratchet in one of the housings, automatic ratchet actuation operated by movement of the press and a ribbon passing between the spools over the edge of one side of one housing across the platen and over an intermediate edge of the opposite housing.

8. In a printing press, a platen, two spools one located at each side beyond the platen, a housing of angular cross section for each spool, one edge of each housing comprising a guiding edge and the guiding edges being at the same level, readily removable supporting means for the spools within the housings, a ratchet and a ratchet lever therefor in one of the housings and a ribbon upon the spools, passing about a guiding edge and along one side of one housing and across a guiding edge of the other.

EDMUND KIRKBRIDE. 

